Presently, to select a program to view, many television viewers simply "channel surf", or sequentially view each channel, until they find a channel that has a desirable program. However, as the number of available channels continues to grow, channel surfing has become an increasingly inefficient method for viewers to find the type of program they want to watch. Instead, most viewers would prefer a more direct method for selecting a program to view.
Some cable television networks dedicate a specific channel to serve as an electronic program guide. Alternatively, an electronic program guide can be superimposed over a current channel as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,978 issued to Alten et al. Typically, one standard program guide is provided for all viewers or subscribers to a network. These electronic program guides are usually time-based, and are scrolled continuously or periodically. Since only a few channels can be displayed at once, the time for completing one cycle of the channels can be considerable. In addition, moving back and forth between the on-screen program guide and selected programs is cumbersome. Furthermore, viewers would prefer to actually view the programs, as they can when channel surfing, in order to make their program selection.
With a such a wide range of programs offered, individual viewers usually prefer selected subsets of the available programming. In fact, viewers typically value the content of the programs above the specific channel or broadcaster providing the programs. To meet this need, customized electronic program guides have been developed in which the on-screen display includes programs from only a specific content category or a list of programs on favorite channels. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,596,373 issued to White et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,176 issued to Bruette et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,259 issued to Lawler. Such specialized program guides limit somewhat the amount of information viewers must sift through to select a program. However, viewers still must move back and forth between the on-screen program guide and the selected programs, and viewers still lack real-time viewing of the programs to aid in making their selection.